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King Kong (2005 film)
King Kong is a 2005 epic monster adventure film co-written, produced, and directed by Peter Jackson. A remake of the 1933 film of the same name, the film stars Naomi Watts, Jack Black, Adrien Brody, and, through motion capture, Andy Serkis as the title character. Set in 1933, King Kong tells the story of an overly ambitious filmmaker who coerces his cast and hired ship crew to time travel to the mysterious Skull Island. There they encounter Kong, a legendary giant gorilla, whom they capture and take to New York City. The film's budget climbed from an initial $150 million to a then-record-breaking $207 million. It was released on December 14, 2005 in Germany and on December 16 in the United States, and made an opening of $50.1 million. While it performed lower than expected, King Kong made domestic and worldwide grosses that eventually added up to $550 million, becoming the fourth-highest-grossing film in Universal Pictures history. It also generated $100 million in DVD sales upon its home video release. The film garnered positive reviews from critics and appeared on several top ten lists for 2005. It was praised for its special effects, performances, sense of spectacle and comparison to the 1933 original. It won three Academy Awards for Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing and Best Visual Effects. Plot In 1933, during the Great Depression, New York City vaudeville actress Ann Darrow is hired by financially troubled filmmaker Carl Denham to star in a film. Ann learns her favorite playwright, Jack Driscoll, is the screenwriter. As theirtramp steamer, the SS Venture, journeys to the mysterious Skull Island, Ann and Jack fall in love. Captain Englehorn has second thoughts about the voyage, prompted by crewmen Lumpy and Ben Hayes' speculation of trouble ahead. Deep in the southern waters, the Venture receives a radio message informing Englehorn that there is a warrant for Carl's arrest due to his defiance of the studio's orders to cease production. The message instructs Englehorn to divert to Rangoon, but the ship becomes lost in fog and runs aground on the rocky shore of Skull Island. Carl and his crew explore the island and are attacked by vicious natives, who kill Carl's sound technician as well as one of the sailors. Ann screams as she is captured, and a loud roar is heard beyond the wall. The matriarch of the tribe targets Ann, muttering the word "Kong". Englehorn kills one of the natives and his crew break up the attack and return to the ship. They lighten their load to float off the rocks and carry out repairs, but Jack discovers Ann has been kidnapped. The natives offer Ann as a sacrifice to Kong, a 25 feet (7.6 m) tall gorilla. The crew returns armed, but is too late as Kong takes Ann and flees into the jungle. Ann wins Kong over with juggling and dancing, and begins to grasp Kong's intelligence and capacity for emotion. Englehorn organizes a rescue party. They encounter and kill a Ferrucutus. The rescue party is then caught in the middle of a pack of Venatosaurus saevidicus hunting a herd of Brontosaurus baxteri, and six people are killed, including cameraman Herb. The rest of the rescue party come across a swamp where actor Bruce Baxter and two others leave the group. The rest cross the swamp on rafts, only to be attacked by "Scorpio-pedes", as well by a "Piranhadon", which devours three sailors. The rescue party is making their way across a fallen log when Kong attacks. Five crewmen, including Hayes and Choy, are killed after being thrown off the log, and the rest of the crew find themselves in a ravine. Kong returns to Ann and rescues her from three Vastatosaurus rex. Kong takes her to his lair in the mountains. The remaining rescue party find themselves in a pit full of giant insects. Lumpy is killed by the worm-like "Carnictics Sordicus" while two others are killed by spider-like creatures. Englehorn, Baxter and the two crewmen return, saving the last four members of the rescue party from the pit. As Jack continues searching for Ann, Carl decides to capture Kong. Jack goes to Kong's lair, inadvertently waking him. As Kong fights a swarm of flying Terapusmordax, bat-like rodents, Ann and Jack escape. They arrive at the wall with Kong pursuing them, and Ann becomes distraught by what Carl plans to do. Kong bursts through the gate and attempts to get her back, killing several sailors, but is subdued when Carl knocks him out with chloroform. In New York City, Carl presents "Kong, the Eighth Wonder of the World" on Broadway, starring Baxter and an imprisoned Kong. Ann is played by an anonymous chorus girl, and Kong becomes enraged after realizing that the girl on stage is not Ann. After breaking free from his chrome-steel chains, he wrecks the theater. Kong wreaks havoc around the city and chases Jack. He knocks him out by stopping his car and flipping it, then encounters Ann again. Kong and Ann share a moment on a frozen pond in Central Park until the army attacks. Kong climbs with Ann onto the top of the Empire State Building, where he fights off six F8C-5 Helldiver Navy planes, downing three. At the end of the confrontation, Kong is mortally wounded by the gunfire and gazes at Ann for the last time before falling from the building to his death. As Ann is reunited with Jack, civilians, photographers, police and soldiers gather around Kong's corpse. Carl takes one last glimpse at him and says, "It wasn't the airplanes. It was Beauty killed the Beast." Cast *Naomi Watts as Ann Darrow, a struggling vaudeville actress who is desperate for work. Carl first meets her when she tries to steal an apple from a fruit stand. Further into the voyage, she falls in love with Jack and forms a special relationship with Kong. *Jack Black as Carl Denham, a film director who obtained the map to Skull Island. Due to his debts, Carl starts to lose his moral compass and obsesses over his film to the point that he disregards safety. *Adrien Brody as Jack Driscoll, a screenwriter who falls in love with Ann. He unwittingly becomes part of the voyage when, while delivering a script to Denham, he is delayed before he can get off of the Venture. *Thomas Kretschmann as Captain Englehorn, the German captain of the Venture. Englehorn shows a dislike for Denham, presumably because of his obsessive nature. *Colin Hanks as Preston, Denham's neurotic but honest personal assistant. *Jamie Bell as Jimmy, a boy who was found on the''Venture'', wild and abandoned. He is a kleptomaniac and views Hayes as a father figure. *Andy Serkis as Kong (motion capture) a 25 ft. gorilla who is around 120–150 years old. He is the last of his species, Megaprimatus kong. **Serkis also plays Lumpy, the ship's cook, barber, and surgeon. A brave sailor, he warns Denham about rumors he has heard about Skull Island and Kong. *Evan Parke as Benjamin "Ben" Hayes, Englehorn's first mate and a mentor to Jimmy who leads Ann's rescue mission because of his army training and combat experience gained during World War I. *Kyle Chandler as Bruce Baxter, an actor who specialises in adventure films. He abandons Ann's rescue mission but brings Englehorn to rescue the search party from the insect pit, and is given credit for rescuing Ann during the Broadway display of Kong. *John Sumner as Herb, Denham's loyal cameraman. *Lobo Chan as Choy, Lumpy's best friend and a janitor on the Venture. *Craig Hall as Mike, Denham's soundman for the journey. *William Johnson as Manny, an elderly vaudevillian actor and colleague of Darrow. *Mark Hadlow as Harry, a struggling vaudevillian actor. *Jed Brophy and Todd Rippon appeared in the film as crew members. In addition, director Jackson with makeup artist Rick Baker as the pilot and gunner on the airplane that kills the title character, his children appear as New York children, The Lord of the Rings co-producer Rick Porras appears as a gunner in an airplane, and Bob Burns and his wife appear as New York bystanders. Frequent Jackson collaborator Howard Shoremakes a cameo appearance as the conductor of the New York theater from where Kong escapes. Category:Films and other media Category:Live-Action films Category:Monster movies Category:Films Category:2000s Category:English-language films